Where do these fake views come from?

View bots. 

These bots can be hired for relatively little money to boost the viewing figures on any video channel, from YouTube or Instagram to Twitch or TikTok.

What are view bots?

View bots, as the name suggests, are bots programmed to watch videos to inflate viewer count numbers. They can be used on virtually any platform where video is played or even on music streaming sites. 

A view bot doesn’t just view whatever activity is occurring on the screen at any time. It also views media such as banner ads, pre or post-roll video ads, and other paid elements. 

This form of a bot is relatively complex, as its goal is to avoid being detected by sophisticated filters on video platforms. 

There’s a high demand for these bots, which is why they are easy to find and are widely used. When searching for ‘view bots,’ there are hundreds of results on the organic search pages. 

And, yes, if you’re wondering whether view botting is against the TOS (Terms of Service), it is, but this doesn’t stop people from buying these very affordable bot packages. In fact, many of them offer free trials, so you don’t even need to pay to inflate your views.   

Why do people use view bots?

The biggest objective of any YouTube or Twitch creator is to get more views. The more views they get, the more money they make, and that’s all the motivation they need to use view bots. 

And this is where many people saw an opportunity, making it easy for creators to purchase a YouTube, or a Twitch view bot. There are even Facebook live view bots that can drastically increase viewer numbers on live videos on Facebook.     

Newbie creators on video platforms are particularly susceptible to using them as they look to grow their subscriber base and convince the algorithms to show more people their videos.  

It also doesn’t hurt them that a view bot isn’t difficult to set up. You can find websites like ViewerLabs and UseViral that walk you through setting up a view bot for your YouTube channel. Many are quite affordable (UseViral offers 10,000 views for a little over $100).   

Although most of us think of social media sites like TikTok, YouTube, or Twitch, there are also other view-based sites such as esports platforms where you can unleash a view bot.

And as this form of online entertainment is increasingly popular with younger audiences, marketers are looking to streaming services or even metaverse games to run their ad campaigns.

How do view bots affect advertisers?

Perhaps the most obvious impact for advertisers is in cost-per-mile (CPM) advertising. If you’re paying per 1000 impressions, and around 15-20% of those impressions are fake, you’re leaking money.  

Referred to as both click fraud and ad fraud (although the two terms mean slightly different things), the impact on the global marketing industry is estimated at around $40 billion each year and growing.       

Impression fraud also means your ad spend is exhausted faster, often meaning you’re missing out on genuine ad opportunities.

Another issue is that the inflated view metrics skew your ad data, effectively making your video ads or banner ads seem more successful than they are.

And in an age of influencer marketing, embellished videos and stream views also artificially inflate the value of an influencer. When you consider that the definition of an influencer is someone with a few thousand followers and that those followers could cost someone just a few hundred bucks, the cost of this deception to marketers can mount up.  

Would you be happy paying your ad budget to target an audience of click farm robots?

Read this guide to understand how you can protect your marketing efforts from fraudulent bots.

Types of view bots

‘View bot’ is a blanket term for a wide range of bots that are programmed to help inflate video metrics. Most obviously, these bots click on videos and raise the view count. But they can do other things as well.   

Live stream bots

Some vIew bots can also hop on Twitch and Facebook live streams to make it seem like the streamer has a wider audience base. The goal here is to draw in more people to join the stream. Streaming farms are becoming increasingly popular as a way to artificially inflate the number of viewers or listeners on live streams.

Chats and engagement bots

People see through views without engagement pretty easily, so many YouTube view bots have been programmed to engage as well. However, the engagements are flat and, well, unengaging. You’ll usually see this with Instagram and Facebook comments too. We’ll talk more about these in a bit.

Engagement groups

Although these aren’t view bots in the traditional sense, engagement groups act as a sort of human view bot.

Instead of getting a YouTube view bot that is prohibited by the TOS, creators often sign up with communities where they watch and engage with each other’s videos. For creators, they get the metrics of more views and comments.    

But for advertisers, this is non-genuine human traffic with a very low chance of converting. And to add to this, engagement groups may also click on ads within videos, blogs, or other content to inflate the payout for the creator. In short, they commit click fraud.

What is click fraud? Learn more in our guide…

Chat impersonation bots

Another form of view bot, chat impersonation, is often presented as a way to ‘prank’ your friends on their live streams. But, of course, these bots are often bought to increase engagement on live streams or videos.

Like other forms of view bots, these chat impersonators also affect ad impressions and distort view metrics. 

Creators risk a lot by using view bots

Fraudulently inflating your engagement is against the terms of service on all of the major platforms, including YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, and Meta (Facebook/Instagram). Content creators who are caught run the risk of: 

• Getting their videos taken down
• Losing the ability to monetize their content
• Being banned from the platform altogether

Twitch takes an aggressive approach against view botting. Besides banning creators, the platform has a history of suing bot creators. 

For example, In 2018, Twitch won a $1.37 million lawsuit against Michael and Katherine Anjomi, creators of a view bot. 

Trust issues

Bots on YouTube and other platforms don’t just rob advertisers of their ad revenue; they also make a fool out of real users. Many people follow creators online because of the social proof that thousands of others enjoy their content.

When these creators get busted, they don’t just lose their videos; they often lose the trust of their subscriber base.

Take Pink Sparkles, a Twitch streamer who got banned after mistakenly flashing her bot software on-screen during a Twitch stream. This, in addition to other violations, earned her an instant ban from the platform.

Meanwhile, on Instagram, around half of all influencers on the platform are knowingly engaging in forms of fraud, such as buying subscribers and viewers.

And when an influencer is discovered to be using fake followers or bots, it can seriously damage their status.

Amongst all these, there are several ways you can spot a fake profile and a view bot on social media.

How can you spot a view bot account? 

Here are three quick ways to identify a profile with view bots on any platform.

1. Low chat with high views

These are the biggest giveaways that someone doesn’t have real views. The average view-to-chat ratio varies between platforms and the kind of content being shared. However, a video with thousands of views and a few dozen comments usually means one of two things: the video is promoted, or the profile uses view bots.

2. Generic comments

We mentioned this earlier. Some sophisticated and higher-priced view bots will also engage with comments. However, the comments are prescripted, generic, and usually appear repeatedly. 

Look out for comments that require zero thought and seem to appear regularly. Typical examples include: 

• I love your stream
• Awesome
• This looks great

3. Low subscribers

A realistic YouTube subscriber/view ratio is 8-12%. That means accounts with 10,000 subscribers can expect 800 to 1,200 views per video. Of course, these numbers will fluctuate, but when you start to see 7,000 consistent views on a channel with 10,000 subscribers, you know it’s not just real viewers.

What can you do about view bots?

If you advertise on any video-based platform, the chances are that your ads are exposed to view bots in some capacity.

Considering that between 40-50% of all internet traffic is non-human, this presents a major headache for marketing budgets. And yes, although platforms such as YouTube and Twitch do use filters to block bots on their sites, the truth is a large amount of non-human traffic still gets through.

Research from ClickCease shows that an average of 14% of all Google Ads clicks are non-genuine. Even on Facebook and Instagram, fake profiles (including view bots) are responsible for a big slice of the ad spend.

ClickCease’s industry-leading fraud prevention software blocks bots, including view bots, on your Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube ad campaigns. Whether you’re running pre-roll or post-roll video ads, paying for display ads on YouTube, or any other form of video marketing, blocking bots can save your ad campaign.

Sign up for a free trial of ClickCease to run an audit on your ads.

FAQs: 

What is viewbotting on Twitch?

Viewbotting on Twitch is the practice of artificially boosting a streamer’s viewer count through the use of automated bots. These bots are fake accounts created to simulate human-like views on live streams on the platform. 

The primary motivation behind viewbotting is to create a false perception of popularity and success, potentially attracting more genuine viewers, followers, and sponsors.

Is viewbotting illegal?

Viewbotting is against the terms of service of most video and streaming platforms, but it is not illegal in most jurisdictions. However, viewbotting can have significant consequences for streamers who engage in it. Any account caught using viewbots is subject to suspension or termination.

While viewbotting is not currently illegal in most jurisdictions, it is a form of fraud, as it can be used to mislead advertisers and viewers. For example, a streamer who uses view bots may be able to get more sponsorship deals or donations from viewers who believe that the streamer has a large audience.

The post What Are View Bots & How Do They Affect Your Ads? appeared first on ClickCease Blog.

To unlock ChatGPT’s full potential, it’s crucial to have a set of prompts tailored to specific situations. 

In this blog post, we’ll explore how ChatGPT prompts could make lives easier for PPC experts. You’ll also find a list of the most effective prompts for PPC, categorized for easy reference.       

How do ChatGPT prompts work? 

Consider the prompts as the conversation starters with your AI assistant. You ask your question or give a command, and it responds back with your specific need.

It’s like asking your virtual assistant Alexa to increase the temperature by 50 degrees Celsius while preparing the last layer of your cake. But if you don’t specify that you need the temperature in the oven increased, you will end up sweating until you notice that your room temperature is increasing and your cake is ready but undercooked…        

In other words, the AI assistants, while smart, still lack the capacity to understand your current circumstances.  

That’s why clear and concise instructions are everything. They set the stage for the information and responses you receive to help you create PPC ads that make money.     

The role of ChatGPT prompts for PPC experts 

We all know there are still separate opinions about the true value of ChatGPT when it comes to paid ads.        

Some express concerns about its accuracy, while others worry that the generated content might lack emotional intelligence, making audience engagement harder.      

But let’s keep it clear: with just a few tweaks, you can always add a “human touch” or adapt based on factors like audience location, pain points, USPs, or product specifics, etc. Plus, once you become more proficient at identifying which prompts work best in different situations, your use of ChatGPT becomes even more effective.  

It will definitely help generate unique ideas and will help you save time and energy on time-consuming and manual tasks such as keyword research.          

Just to picture it better, these are just some of the benefits you and your PPC team can experience with ChatGPT:     

• Automating routine tasks 
• Identify and target new audience segments
• Generating new creative ideas
• Decrease the workload of your PPC team
• Better resource allocation
• Better results and higher Return on Investment (ROI)

1. Keyword research

Keywords – the initial starting point of any Google ads or Bing (now Microsoft) ads search campaign. 

ChatGPT can assist in generating keyword ideas and providing insights on search intentions, competition, and relevance, helping advertisers identify the most effective keywords for their PPC campaigns.

These prompts can supercharge your PPC keyword strategy:  

• Suggest relevant keywords to advertise this landing page: [URL to the landing page].
• List [number] keyword ideas to advertise about [product name].
• I’m running a [platform and ad format] campaign about [few details about your campaign]. Find keywords similar to this one [keyword or list of keywords].
• Generate the most popular keywords for the topic of [topic].
• I’m running an ad campaign about [product or service with few details]. My target audience is [your audience]. Brainstorm negative keywords for the topic of [topic]. 
• Group the following list of keywords in categories by search intent and category: [list of keywords].   
• Create [number] ad groups for the following list of keywords: [list of keywords].

2. Ad creatives and copywriting

With information about your product or service, campaign goals, intended audience, etc, ChtGPT can help you create compelling ad copy variations.  

Here are the most effective prompts to use for generating your ad copy:

• I’m creating a Google search ad for [product, service, or topic]. I need you to create [number] suggestions for the ad headline and description.  
• I’m running a [type of your PPC ad] about [product or service] with [targeted keyword] as the main keyword. I’m targeting [describe your ad group audience] with this ad: [ad copy]. Adapt this copy for the ad group of [describe your new ad group audience].
• With the ad copy below, I’m targeting [audience group and description]. Generate 10 similar variants in which the Call to Action (CTA) will be shorter, stronger, and more concise: [ad copy], CTA to be edited: [CTA].
• I need to create a Meta video ad for a story as placement about [describe your product or service]. My target audience is [few words to describe the target audience]. Please suggest creative ideas about the video and the description.
• I’m currently running a responsive search ad on Google about [describe your product or service], and the target audience is [description of your audience group]. Based on the headline and description I currently use, please suggest other variants to target different pain points of this target audience for an A/B test.
  The current ad creative: 
  [Headline]
  [Description]

3. Defining the target audience

Even if you already have clearly defined your “ideal” buyer persona, don’t limit your audience possibilities.  

ChatGPT can provide guidance on audience segmentation and demographics, helping you identify or refine your customer profiles for precise targeting. Check the prompts below for this step: 

• I’m running a [type of ad campaign] for [product/service]. Suggest audience groups that I can target based on [criteria].  
• I’m running a [type of ad campaign] for [product/service]. My target audience is [audience specifics]. I need you to identify the most common pain points of this audience group associated with [your product/service] and generate [number] of ad copy suggestions based on this.
• I’m running a [type of ad campaign]. My target audience is [audience demographics, interests, etc.], and I’m targeting with these keywords [targeted keywords]. Generate hypotheses about what factors might affect the performance of my campaign.
• Act like you are an experienced PPC expert. I want to run Google ads for [describe your business and product or service with its specifications]. Create an ideal audience for this ad.

4. Campaign strategy

ChatGPT can offer strategic advice on campaign goals, budget allocation, bidding strategies, and ad scheduling. This will help you come up with better-informed decisions to maximize campaign ROI.  

Leverage these prompts to design winning PPC campaigns:      

• I want to run a creative display ad on social media for [product or service]. Suggest the best placements and platforms I should consider to attract potential customers. 
• I’m preparing a PPC campaign for [short business and product/service description]. Act as an experienced PPC strategist and suggest ad platforms, placements, and format combinations so I can set up multiple campaigns. 
• I’m preparing a Google search ad campaign about [describe your product/service]. Please suggest ad groups with ad copy and headlines for each of these keywords [list your keywords]. Group them in a table format.
• I’m running a PPC campaign about [product/service description]. My target audience is [describe your audience] on the following platforms: [list the platforms where you run your ad]. Suggest a budgeting strategy per platform.

5. Generate product descriptions and names

Let’s face it: many PPC experts claim that creativity is not their strongest skill, and crafting unique and engaging product descriptions for your advertised products requires a touch of artistry and linguistic finesse. 

With these prompts, you can let ChatGPT generate product names and descriptions that are engaging and informative: 

• Please craft a compelling product description about [describe your product]. It needs to address the following USPs (Unique Selling Propositions) [drop your defined USPs].
• I’m running a PPC campaign about [describe your product]. My target audience is [describe your audience]. Please generate 2 product descriptions and names for A/B testing that address the audience’s pain points.
• Please provide a product description for [Product Name]. This product is [Product Category] that [Main Feature/Benefit]. It is designed for [Target Audience] and is [Product Specification]. Source.
• Please write a [number] words engaging product description with a catchy name about [your product]. Focus on these main product features [product features] and use [type of tone of voice, e.g., casual, enthusiastic, etc.] tone of voice.

Search Engine Land suggests that you can use existing Excel spreadsheets with your list of products to generate product descriptions with ChatGPT. Check out their article about this and see how you can utilize it to generate even better product descriptions and names.

6. Landing page optimization

Yes, with the right prompts, ChatGPT can help you optimize the final destination your audience should land on. 

It can suggest ways, for example, to enhance the user experience by providing information on website usability, navigation, and personalization to increase conversion rates and customer satisfaction.  

Follow these landing page optimization prompts:

• Suggest best practices on how to optimize my landing page about [product type]. The main target audience is [target audience].
• I’m running a PPC campaign about [product description]. Suggest ideas on how to optimize its landing page with pain points relevant to [target audience].
• Suggest optimal CTA (Call to Action) to optimize my landing page about [type of product] for better conversions.
• Suggest creative ideas on how to optimize the design on my landing page about [product type]. It should be relevant for [target audience] to motivate them to take the next step.

Check out these prompt ideas for landing page optimization. They might inspire you to adjust or craft your unique prompts applicable to your current needs.

Additional tips for maximum results with your PPC campaigns

As a PPC expert, you can significantly streamline your work with ChatGPT and AI tools in general. However, once you’ve crafted a flawless campaign, don’t forget to make sure your ads reach real users only. 

ChatGPT prompts are great for building the strategy, keywords, and creative elements. Unfortunately, there’s no prompt that will help you get rid of invalid traffic (IVT) and bad actors that are draining your ad budgets. 

Shockingly, in 2022, nearly 40% of all online traffic was confirmed as invalid, resulting in a staggering $35.7 billion of wasted ad spend for PPC campaigns.

To ensure a PPC campaign’s effectiveness, it’s crucial to combine the power of ChatGPT assistance with an AI-driven bot detection solution.  

Bot detection tools for higher Return on Investment (ROI)

Employing a bot detection tool will help you maximize your PPC results, ensuring that your budget is dedicated to genuine interactions, ultimately driving real business outcomes.

ClickCease is tailor-made for PPC experts like you, protecting your ads against fraud. This way, you can invest your time and effort in continually enhancing your campaigns and mastering the art of generating effective ChatGPT prompts.       

Get your ads protected for free for 7 days.

FAQs:

Can ChatGPT be useful for PPC experts?

ChatGPT can offer valuable support for PPC experts in multiple ways. It can simplify tasks by automating repetitive PPC management responsibilities like campaign strategy creation, keyword research, or ad copywriting.

This automation frees up time for PPC experts to focus on more strategic aspects, such as, setup audience targeting, identifying relevant keywords, planning the campaign ad groups, etc.  

ChatGPT can pinpoint well-performing keywords, identify negative ones, and suggest areas for campaign improvement. 

How to write the perfect ChatGPT prompt for PPC?

To craft the perfect ChatGPT prompt for your PPC needs, follow these steps: 

Be clear and concise: Start by being clear about the current state of your PPC campaign. Indicate whether it’s a new campaign or one that’s already running. Specify the platform or ad type, such as search, display, or social media ads. 

Detail your optimization goals: Clearly state what you aim to optimize within the campaign. Whether it’s ad copy, keywords, bidding strategy, or targeting parameters, articulate your primary objective. 

Provide examples: Offer examples of your previous keywords, ad copies, or copy ideas that you’ve been considering. Sharing this information can help ChatGPT generate more contextually relevant suggestions.     

The post Top Must-Use ChatGPT Prompts for PPC Experts appeared first on ClickCease Blog.

Those are the villains of the Insta-world, capable of shaking the harmony on the social platform. They use clever tricks to fake likes, follows, and comments or even send direct messages.    

With its vast pool of users and great tools, Instagram definitely offers excellent opportunities for brands to shine and build relationships with their audience. But in order to use its full potential, it’s essential to avoid the negative consequences spam accounts could bring to your marketing efforts.

So let’s find out what Instagram spam bots are, where they come from, and what you can do to stop them.

What are Instagram spam bots?

Instagram spam bots are automated accounts created to perform fake interactions on the platform. 

They fall within the family of social bots. With their wide presence, social bots are designed to automate social media engagements and post content, yet most of these actions display spam-like characteristics. Instagram bots are programmed to perform engagements in a way specific to this platform only.   

Just like any other type of online bots, they hide their identity by imitating human activity on Instagram. This means they can randomly comment on your photos or reels, like your posts, or click your ads and damage your conversion rate.

What are they used for?

Using spam bots to artificially grow Instagram accounts

With such attributes, bot accounts are an attractive option for some businesses or individuals who want to grow their accounts quickly.  

They’re drawn in by the idea of gaining more followers, reach, and engagement. However, they overlook the fact that this approach is unethical, fraudulent, and can’t bring actual positive results. They may not realize the harm it can cause in the long term. 

Here are some of the risks of using spam bots on Instagram:

Your account could be banned. Instagram has strict rules against spam bots in its Community Guidelines. If you’re caught using them, your account could be banned. 

Bad user experience for your real followers. When people notice that your engagement is fake, they’ll be disappointed and may unfollow you. 

Your brand image will be damaged. Using spam bots can give the impression that your business is unethical or unprofessional.

If you want to grow your Instagram account, there are better ways to do it. Focus on creating high-quality content that will engage your real audience and keep their interest.

Spam bots for malicious activities on Instagram

In addition to being used to artificially inflate engagement, spam bots can also be used for more malicious purposes.       

Promoting scams and phishing attacks. One of the common use cases of fake accounts is to promote or send direct messages that contain malicious links. These links can be used to steal personal information, install malware, or trick users into making payments.  

Spread misinformation. Spam bots can be used to post false or misleading information on Instagram. This can be done to influence public opinion or damage the reputation of an individual, business, or organization. 

Harassing users. Often, spam bots are used to send unwanted messages or comments to users. Their purpose for doing this is to bully, threaten, or intimidate users.

Commit ad fraud. Some spam bots on Instagram are used to click on ads and drive invalid traffic to websites. This can cost advertisers a lot of money and make it difficult to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns.   

How can you recognize spam bot accounts?

In the vast pool of Instagram accounts, bots can easily go unnoticed. Especially if you don’t know what their common traits are or if their creators use more advanced features to hide their nature. 

Bot accounts can often make their profile look more real by behaving just like legitimate users. Some of them regularly post images or stories to avoid being flagged as spam. 

As software programs, they don’t have the capacity to understand what’s posted, which is why they leave weird and unrelated comments. They are programmed with a library of pre-written generic texts that they use to comment or DM users. They post these texts randomly, and some more advanced bots can even target specific posts, users, or groups of users.     

Common signs of spam accounts

Here are some tips on how to recognize spam bots on Instagram: 

Usernames of the accounts. Look for accounts that use generic or nonsense usernames. Often they can have some of the following naming patterns:    

• A name followed by a random number or word: ”_liam1212”, or “jameswarrior”
• Generic names that promise followers or likes: “1000followersfree” or “like4like_1000“
• A random username without any actual meaning: “_mr_topgun893”, “id___love_mercy” 
• Names that are related to popular trends: “tiktokfamous” or “instamodel“

Nonsense bios. Check the account’s bio. Spam bots often have generic bios. Their common trait is that they are very short and to the point, and they use emojis and hashtags or focus on promoting services or products. Quite often, there could be a link to a malicious website. Here are a few examples:       

• Get free followers by following me!
• I’m an influencer; follow me for the latest trends!
• Free promotions
• Dogs are my thing
• DM for collabs

The nature of the comment or DMs. Spam bots often leave generic or irrelevant comments that don’t make sense in the context of the post. They may also post inappropriate or unrelated content. Examples of spam comments or messages:     

• Promote it on
• Send pic
• Send it on
• Send me a message
• DM it on
• DM for collabs
• DM for promotions

Profile pictures. Spam accounts often use profile pictures that are stock photos or that have been stolen from other accounts. 

Low Follower-to-Following Ratio: Real users generally have a balanced or natural ratio of followers to accounts they follow. Spam bots, on the other hand, often have a high number of accounts they follow but very few followers in return. 

Lack of Personal Posts: Real users usually share personal photos and content on their profiles. If an account only reposts or shares content without any original posts, it could be a sign of a bot.   

Remember, while these indicators can help identify potential spam bots, some real Instagram users may display similar behaviors. Therefore, it’s essential to exercise caution and not jump to conclusions without thorough analysis.

How to stop spam bots on Instagram?

Interacting with these fake bot accounts could have real consequences for private and business accounts. It could include a banned Instagram account, decreased reach for your posts, poor brand image, or even stolen content and brand information. 

As a platform, Instagram is taking this problem seriously. They continuously refine their systems to detect and remove such accounts to maintain the integrity and safety of the platform.        

However, due to the dynamic nature of technology and the ever-evolving tactics of spammers, new spam bots may emerge or adapt to evade detection. To remain safe and protect your marketing efforts on the platform, you must take some actions on your end too.     

There are a few ways you can stop Instagram spam bots from engaging with you:    

1. Block and report spam accounts. If you receive a spam message or follow request, you can block the account and report it to Instagram. This will help prevent the account from contacting you again and will also help Instagram identify and remove spam accounts.
2. Turn off similar account suggestions. This setting will prevent your account from being suggested to other users who may be spammers. You can find this setting under “Edit profile,” and you need to untick the box next to “Show account suggestions on profiles.”
3. Filter your comments. While you can always hide comments that may seem spammy, there’s a way to avoid them automatically. You can filter your comments so that the ones that contain certain words or phrases won’t be allowed. You can find this setting under Settings > Privacy > Comments > Hidden Words.
4. Use a bot protection solution. These tools can be a helpful way to block spam accounts and messages.  

When it comes to protecting your Instagram ads from ad fraud, check ClickCease’s Facebook ad fraud protection product. It will block bot accounts from engaging with your Instagram ads, ensuring that your budget is being used for genuine traffic only.

So if you want to maintain a healthy presence on the platform, start implementing these safety tips. These will help you keep Instagram spam bots away and, therefore, attract more genuine followers, drive more traffic to your website, and ultimately, increase your sales. 

FAQ

Why are Instagram bots so harmful?

Instagram bots can be detrimental to businesses for several reasons: 

1. Get your account banned: Any use of spam accounts violates Instagram’s terms of service. If a business is caught using bots to grow its account, it may be flagged, restricted, or even permanently banned. 
2. Damage to organic reach: Instagram’s algorithm is designed to prioritize content based on genuine engagement and user interactions. If an account has extensive engagement coming from bots, the algorithm may reduce the visibility of their posts. 
3. Scam users. Some bots are used to scam users by tricking them into giving out personal information or clicking on malicious links. This can lead to identity theft, financial fraud, and other problems.
4. Ad fraud on your ads. Instagram spam bots could interact with your paid campaigns on Instagram, resulting in ineffective spending on your ad budget. 

What are the common types of Instagram spam bots?

Instagram spam bots come in many forms, but they all share one common goal – to benefit their owner in some way. Some of the most common are:  

1. Follow bots. These bots will automatically follow other accounts in an attempt to inflate their follower count artificially.  
2. Like bots. Designed to like other users’ posts to either boost their popularity or aim to be noticed. 
3. Comment bots. These bots comment on other users’ posts with automated messages, often promoting products or services.       
4. Message bots. These bots send direct messages to other users with automated messages, often trying to sell something or send spammy links.  
5. Phishing bots. These bots can send messages that appear to be from Instagram but are actually trying to steal users’ login credentials.    

The post No More Fraud: How to Spot and Block Instagram Spam Bots appeared first on ClickCease Blog.

Pretty much everyone these days knows that a sizeable chunk of many social media accounts are automated. 

An estimated 95 million Instagram accounts and 270 million Facebook accounts are thought to be either bots or fake profiles. And despite the impact of fake news, disinformation, and troll accounts, we’re learning to live with it and basically ignore the issue.

But, for digital marketers, bots on Facebook have other negative impacts. And with the sums of money involved, they’re kinda hard to ignore.

Before we dig into the resulting problem, let’s look at the types of Facebook bots and audiences and what they’re doing. 

Types of audiences & bots on Facebook

The term bad audiences refer to any form of social media account that has a minimal to zero chance of converting. This might be because they’re designed for a purpose other than genuine interaction, or, they’re not actually human.   

Bot accounts

It’s actually quite easy for even a novice programmer to create a Facebook or Instagram bot. They can then use these bots for a number of processes, from spreading disinformation to inflating engagement on specific accounts.
There’s a well-publicized account of a vending machine in Moscow selling Instagram followers and clicks for just a few dollars. And while researching click farms, I myself spoke to two people who showed me their Instagram bots in action.

Duplicate accounts 

Duplicate accounts don’t necessarily mean bots, and there are a number of reasons why people would use a duplicate account on Facebook. For reasons as diverse as managing their business, trolling people, or stalking their ex.   

Although these are not necessarily fraudulent accounts, they are most likely used for a specific purpose and so have less chance of converting. 

Zombie or compromised accounts

When people either stop using their profiles or die, their accounts are known as zombie profiles. Although there are processes to remove these accounts from social media, many of them are still floating around out there. 

These accounts can also be compromised or hacked by bots or hackers. 

Cyborg accounts

On Facebook itself, there is the ongoing problem of fake accounts created to spread or amplify disinformation. 

These accounts are often run from some form of click farm, with the Russian troll factories perhaps the most infamous example. Fake accounts like these are usually operated as a combination of humans and bots, referred to as cyborg accounts.  

Often these accounts will use bots to post or share content (usually from dubious sources), comment, or inflate the popularity of groups, businesses, and individuals. However, they also use humans to interact with the site, such as commenting on posts or responding to comments. This can often generate ad impressions.   

Malware clicks

The Facebook Audience Network is a popular method of advertising on third-party apps. But the problem with these apps is that you can’t always be sure those clicks are genuine.

There have been a number of recent cases of malware within apps generating click traffic fraudulently. One of these, DrainerBot, was able to view video and banner ads even when the infected app wasn’t being used.  

Malware often leverages the genuine activity of the human user by hijacking touches and clicks. Known as clickjacking or click injection, the developer can generate revenue by fraudulently amplifying or diverting the click to an ad often without the user’s knowledge.

Data center traffic

There are a number of ways that your ad impressions can be generated by data centers. One of these is web scrapers or data harvesting. Many legitimate software programs such as Ahrefs and Google use these scrapers to collect data from the internet.

However, there are plenty of less sophisticated web scrapers that can inadvertently generate an impression on a Facebook ad.

Another form of data center traffic, and one that has been well publicized, is fraudulent botnets. Fraud campaigns such as 3ve and Methbot used data center traffic to route their bots and hide their true location or identity.

What’s in an ad impression?

Marketers running ads on Facebook know that impressions matter. We mean ad impressions, of course. 

So how many of your ad impressions are being wasted on bots and bad audiences?

Data from CHEQ.AI shows that around 4% of all ad clicks and impressions on Facebook are from bots or non-genuine accounts. 

Facebook actually purged 2.2 billion fake accounts from January to March 2019. An amount that had doubled since the end of the previous year.

You’ll find these duplicate or fake accounts on both Facebook and Instagram.

How Facebook bots affect your marketing

However much you’re spending on Facebook Ads, there is a high chance you see some bad audience traffic.  

Each ad impression costs you money, which is obviously the main way that you’ll see an adverse effect. But what about the other ways bots and bad audiences affect your ads?

Skewed analytics

Bot traffic and bad audiences that aren’t excluded from your analytics also leave an impression on your data. Many businesses focus solely on the KPIs, the traffic, and the engagement. If your traffic seems a success, why not pump more money into the platform that generated it?

Being aware of the bot traffic on Facebook Ads can help you better understand your ad performance overall. It can also help you to exclude these bad audiences, and maximize your ad targeting.  

Bad retargeting

It’s one thing if your ads target bad audiences once. But what about if you retarget your ads to these automated accounts and bad audiences? In effect, you’re spending twice (or more) on ad impressions and potential clicks.

Fake leads

Increasingly, bots are able to interact with links in a more human manner. This includes completing forms or generating downloads, which as well as skewing your analytics, can also result in false leads.

These fake leads lead to additional wastage from retargeting, marketing, and even direct sales inquiries.    

Cart abandonment

Shopping based sites also see high rates of cart abandonment from bot traffic. This results in knock-on effects such as inventory distortion, skewed distortion rates, and a reduced ROI from your ads.     

Carding

Another issue for shopping based sites, carding is where a bot will try to use multiple fraudulent or stolen card details to generate a sale. It’s a method that criminals use to verify which stolen bank cards work. 

Carding is another practice that distorts your metrics and ROI, results in fraudulent purchases and disputed transactions, and can also result in criminal charges for the seller. 

Blocking Facebook bots bad audiences

Increasingly, digital marketers are becoming more aware of the impact of bots on their ads. The need to filter and manage invalid traffic has become a part and parcel of online ads, especially on Google Ads.  

Facebook Ads, as we’ve seen, isn’t immune to the problem of ad fraud. 

Taking back control of your marketing spend means using fraud prevention software. As well as blocking bots proactively, you’ll also gain insight into how your ads are interacted with, the factors that trigger the fraudulent clicks, and more insights such as locations. 

As the industry leading click fraud prevention software, ClickCease is the choice of professional marketers and global brands. With an ever growing blocklist of bots and fraud sources and the best fraud filters on the market, ClickCease makes blocking invalid traffic easy.

Sign up for your free trial to run a diagnostic on your ads.

The post How to Protect Your Ads from Bots on Facebook? appeared first on ClickCease Blog.

Tracking conversions and website events are how Meta manages this ad reach and optimizes your ad traffic. They do this through the Facebook pixel, which allows us to track website events.

But what are website events?

These are any activity that takes place on your website, whether that is signing up for your newsletter or buying one of your products.

Facebook categorizes these into standard events and custom events. So what’s the difference?

What are Facebook’s standard website events?

Standard events are any activity on your website that has been predefined by Meta. This covers most of the most typical customer activity on your site, including:

• Adding items to the cart
• Completing registration
• Getting in contact via various methods, including email or phone
• Signing up for trials or downloading forms
• Viewing specific pages or content, such as videos or landing pages

If a site has the Facebook pixel installed, then marketers can access this user interaction to customize their ads for better conversions or build lookalike audiences.

What are Facebook custom events?

Facebook Custom Events are a way to track user interactions with your website that hasn’t been predefined. For example, you might have specific CTAs where you want to track the conversion or perhaps even track offline events.

The great thing about custom events on Facebook is that you can create them for any action you want.

Often this is tracking website visitor behavior. But it can also analyze more specific actions or even define details of some standard events.  

Examples of custom events for Facebook include:

• Time on page
• Page views per session
• Form submissions, including questionnaires, download forms, or inquiry forms
• Value of purchases (from standard events)
• Other site pages visited
• Offline events such as events attended, stores visited, or purchases made offline

Facebook custom events can be a powerful way to boost your marketing campaigns. By being able to track conversions and understand how people interact with your ads, you can optimize future campaigns and bring even more people into your Facebook marketing funnels.

You can track your standard or custom events and, of course, any conversions from these events in the Facebook Analytics dashboard.  

How to track Facebook custom events

To track custom events on Facebook, you’ll need to use the Meta Pixel (which is the new name for the Facebook Pixel). This piece of code is added to your website or mobile app, allowing you to track user behavior and send that data back to Meta, where it can be used to optimize your ad campaigns.

To set up the Meta Pixel, you’ll need to go through the Ads Manager dashboard using these steps:

1. Go to the Meta Ads Manager and click the “Pixels” tab.
2. Click on the “Create a Pixel” button.
3. Give your pixel a name and click “Create.”
4. Follow the instructions to install the pixel on your website or mobile app.

Once you’ve installed the Meta Pixel, you can start tracking custom events.  

To do this, you’ll need to use the “trackCustom” function, which allows you to specify the event you want to track and any relevant parameters. For example, if you want to track when a user adds an item to their shopping cart, you might use the following code:

fbq(‘trackCustom’, ‘AddToCart’, {value: ‘10.00’, currency: ‘USD’});

This code tells the Meta to track a custom event called “AddToCart” and includes two parameters: the value of the item added to the cart and the currency.

Setting up a custom audience

To create a custom audience, you’ll need to use the “fbq” function and specify the audience you want to create. For example, to create an audience of users who have added items to their shopping cart, you might use the following code:

fbq(‘track’, ‘AddToCart’);

This code tells the Facebook Pixel to track the “AddToCart” event and create a custom audience of users who have taken this action.

Tracking custom conversions

Custom conversions allow you to track specific actions that users take on your website or mobile app, such as completing a purchase or signing up for a newsletter. To create a custom conversion, you’ll need to use the “fbq” function and specify the conversion you want to track.

This might be a specific sale item, a service you offer, or even a free trial.

How to set up tracking and analytics for custom events

To track your Facebook custom events, audiences, and conversions, you’ll need to use the Meta Pixel. Facebook Analytics is no longer available, but there are several tools that Meta for Business provides to help you monitor the performance of your campaigns.

These are:

• Meta Business Suite
• Meta Ads Manager
• Meta Events Manager

Business Suite allows you to track and edit all your ad campaigns across Facebook and Instagram. However, the tools are a little fragmented, so the events manager loads as a separate tool within your Meta dashboard.

Read Meta’s guide to setting up your custom conversions here.

You can use the data and insights provided by the Meta Events Manager to understand how people are interacting with your website or app and identify trends and patterns in their behavior. This can help you optimize your website or app and measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.

Although Meta’s suite of analysis tools is great, you aren’t restricted to just using their dashboard. There are plenty of tools to help you manage your PPC campaigns, including tracking your custom events and custom conversions.  

One of these is Google Tag Manager. To track Meta pixel events and conversions in Google Tag Manager, follow these steps:

• Go to Meta Events Manager
• Click on the Meta Pixel you want to integrate with Google Tag Manager
• Hit the ‘Manage Interactions’ button. It’s on the far right-hand side of the desktop dashboard.
• You’ll see a pop-up with available interactions, which will include ‘ browser pixel’
• Click Manage and select ‘Add to another website’
• Click on ‘Install code manually’
• Copy the base code (click on ‘copy’)
• Go to Google Tag Manager and create a new custom HTML tag
• Rename your new tag something like ‘Meta pixel’
• Paste the code from Meta into the code area and save
• Choose your Meta tag to track across all pages on your website

From here, you will have your Pixel installed and ready to go, and you can track the data on Google tag manager.

So how can you optimize your Facebook and Instagram campaigns, and specifically your custom events?

Optimize for desktop vs. mobile devices

If you’re running ad campaigns on Facebook or Instagram, you will need to have optimized your ads for mobile users. 

According to research from Facebook, mobile users are more likely to convert than desktop users and tend to spend more than their traditional counterparts.  

Mobile optimization is crucial if you’re trying to sell something, as there’s a much higher chance that someone will purchase on a phone or tablet than they would on a laptop or desktop computer.

Another thing to remember is that mobile users make up the majority of internet traffic. And for Facebook or Instagram users, this is even more important as users are mostly on the apps.  

And when it comes to ads on Facebook or Instagram, you should also make sure you have a strategy to avoid traffic from fake accounts. With an estimated 1.4 billion fake accounts on Facebook alone, these non-genuine accounts can greatly impact your ad spend.

Blocking fake accounts on Facebook and Instagram

Unfortunately, you can’t use Facebook’s custom events to spot and block non-genuine traffic. These accounts are often managed by bots and are used for anything from spreading disinformation to simply liking and engaging with accounts for money.

Although Facebook and Instagram regularly clear the decks and boot bots and fake accounts off their platforms, they usually catch up with the problem rather than proactively prevent it.

Read our guide to ad fraud on Facebook.

ClickCease is the industry-leading choice for digital marketers who want to avoid fraud on their paid ads. By monitoring traffic based on over 100 data points, ClickCease blocks fake accounts and bots in real time. And no, it doesn’t block genuine human customers.

Run your own traffic audit on your Instagram or Facebook Ads with a free 7-day trial of ClickCease.

The post How to optimize for Facebook custom events appeared first on ClickCease Blog.

There are methods and strategies to optimize Facebook Ads that can have a massive impact on your campaign results and ROAS (Return on ad spend).

Here at ClickCease we’re lucky to have some of the best and most experienced digital marketers working on our team. So, I spoke to Hagar Rafael, our very own Facebook Ads expert.

With over ten years experience working on Facebook ad campaigns for various companies, Hagar has seen the evolution of the platform and the changes in what does and doesn’t work.

And so, these are our professional tips for Facebook Ad optimization, on all of Meta’s ad platforms.

1. Understand user behavior on each site

Facebook and Instagram might be part of the same family, but the user behavior is totally different. As Hagar points out, “On Facebook people expect to interact with written content and videos. This means news outlets, publisher content, even posts from groups – which is more popular than ever. 

“Instagram is mostly inspirational content. People are looking to consume video or stories, and now reels, which is meant to stimulate our creative side as humans”

Attention is the main commodity on Facebook and Instagram. So anything that engages us to act, respond or stay on the site is going to be preferred by Facebook’s algorithm.

“For both organic and paid content, the importance is in the compatibility between the audience and the creative content they are shown”

In short, understand how Facebook users, especially your target audience, will react to content on the site.

Content that works well on Facebook

• Funny or humorous content such as gifs, videos or memes
• Freebies, giveaways and deals
• Social or trending issues
• Short form video
• Live and long form video

Content that works well on Instagram

• Funny or humorous content, including memes or video/reels
• User generated content, such as shares/posts from happy customers (don’t forget to tag them!)
• ‘How to’ or ‘Behind the scenes’ style content – for example life hacks
• Inspiring or experience focused content. 
• Questions – such as AMA (ask me anything) style reels or stories

2. Content is King – Video doubly so

Social media has been evolving rapidly over the last few years. First it was Snapchat, now it’s TikTok. But the biggest change both of these social challengers have had is the rapid rise of video content on social media.

“When Facebook bought Instagram this changed how they see the content on their sites. And in fact Instagram became the main focus for Facebook – and here video is King.”

In 2022, this focus changed again, making video, specifically reels, the most important of content – paid or organic.

If you want attention, likes, follows or any form of engagement on Meta’s suite of platforms, then you need to be looking at creating video.

And not just any old video…

3. The art of thumb-stopping is key

The average internet user consumes 147 minutes of social media content every day. That’s nearly 3 hours… This doesn’t take into consideration other forms of digital engagement, such as reading news or other publisher content, engaging with streaming platforms, games, and even our work-based screen time.

Put simply, we all spend A LOT of time on the internet every day, and ad fatigue is a real thing. So getting people’s attention is harder than ever. 

“We see the best way to stop people from endless scrolling is by using video. There is something in the movement… the dynamic actions of video that make the human brain stop and engage”, says Hagar. 

But it’s not enough just to create video content.

To stop the scroll and keep those eyeballs engaged, you also need a hook and a reason to stay watching. 

“The first three seconds of a video are the most important”, says Hagar. But how do you catch people’s attention?

• Bold colors catch attention better
• Use faces – we’re more likely to watch if we can relate to the image
• Use subtitles or captions – millennials and Gen-Z love closed captions
• Open with a bold statement
• Embrace numbers and statistics 

You might not use all all of these at the same time (in fact you probably shouldn’t), but understanding what catches our attention is half the battle.

4. Understand how the Audience Network can work for you

The Audience Network is Meta’s version of Google Display Network (GDN). This means you can display banners and interactive ads on apps on the Audience Network.

Although this might sound great, there are a few things to bear in mind:  

• The Audience Network targets mobile users only using banner ads or display ads
• Banner sizes are quite small
• This form of advertising can be seen as quite intrusive by users
• Some Audience Network ads are used to incentivize users to win more in-game credits such as lives or coins. Basically, the user is not interested in your product but just in getting free game credit

Hagar makes a good point when she says that, “…The Facebook Audience Network can be very useful when we are doing retargeting campaigns. If we are just trying to get as much exposure for our brand as possible then using all of the available platforms with Meta means we spread our message wide.”

But does this mean that Facebook Audience Network is useful for everyone? Not necessarily.

Some of the industries that see better performance on the Audience Network, according to one study, include:

• Retail and ecommerce
• News sites 
• Broadcast services and VOD (video on demand)
• Games
• Dating sites and apps
• Software services

5. Meta Ads work better with a larger audience

One of the recommendations of Meta/Facebook for advertisers is to let their algorithm find the best targeting. What this means for marketers is that it is better to use a broad audience and let the platform optimize your ad reach for you.

And Hagar agrees that an ad strategy on Facebook or Instagram works better when you have an audience over 100,000.

“It’s better to let the campaign run and then optimize based on conversions… But this isn’t suitable for everyone as you do need a high budget.

“Facebook’s targeting does work well, but not so well in small numbers”

But how does this work for those of us who aren’t in highly populated areas?

“I see that for best results, Facebook marketers need to be targeting around 20-30% of the local Facebook using population”, says Hagar.

6. Organic posts are your research ground

You already have a great campaign of organic social media posts on your Facebook and Instagram pages, right? And one great way to bring in traffic is to boost an existing post that has shown good engagement already.

But here is the thing…

Adding a boost to your Facebook ads is not the best way to get your best organic content seen. As Hagar points out, “Boost posts don’t allow you to track conversions and you can only use limited targeting options”.

So how can you make the most of your organic popularity?

Create an ad based on your best organic content, and use the Engagement objective.

Hagar says, “At ClickCease we sometimes use content that has performed well on our organic feed and create a version for our paid campaigns. By using the options to optimize for engagement and conversions at the same time you can maximize the results you get from it”.

7. Use custom audiences and data

Making use of Facebook’s Lookalike Audiences is another very efficient way to reach a relevant and engaged audience on Facebook. Of course, you will need to already own this data, which you probably do.

To build your lookalike audience you can:

• Import email lists in .csv or .txt file format
• Use Facebook pixel to track your website visitors and build you custom list
• Track users who visit or interact with your Instagram profile
• Retarget people who have watched your videos on Facebook
• Access details from app downloads or interactions
• Offline data such as telephone numbers or other details

Facebook themselves recommend a list of between 1,000 to 5,000 people. But anything is better than nothing when you’re getting started, and you can quickly build your lookalike audience with a Facebook ad campaign.

With your base customer audience data, Facebook will then be able to build a profile of your ideal customer over time to better target users. 

Hagar says, “I recommend using your own data and then choosing Facebook’s audience targeting attributes, which are very broad, but effective”.

8. Take fraud seriously (and block it)

Fake profiles on Instagram and Facebook are a big problem for the platforms. And even if they regularly clear out these fake profiles, it takes no time for these fake and bot based accounts to come straight back.

What are these fraudulent accounts?

• Bots for fake engagement and likes
• Click farm based accounts
• Accounts showing ‘unusual’ user behavior (for example, trolls or accounts used for spreading disinformation)

So, how prevalent are these fake accounts?

Research shows that even the world’s biggest influencers are not immune, with around 30-40% of followers on big accounts being fake.

And when you consider that some of the profiles have millions of followers, you can see how this adds up.

But what about us, the average marketer?  

At ClickCease we see that fraudulent traffic on Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns can hit around 3%. Although this might not sound like much in the overall scheme, when you consider that you’re paying for impressions on hundreds of thousands of accounts, it does have an impact.

In our own tests, we also found that preventing fake traffic on Facebook Ads improves the cost per conversion.

ClickCease offers a free trial for 7 days so you can try it for yourself. If you are running Facebook or Instagram ads, see what a difference blocking fraud can make.

9. Use audience exclusion

As part of your targeting, and fraud prevention, you can create custom exclusion lists on Facebook Ads. Blocking fraud will add some of these profiles to your exclusion list, but you can also set up exclusions for:

• Existing customers
• Certain geo areas
• Other demographic elements such as age or interests

Of course, not everyone will be a potential customer, so creating these audience exclusions can prevent overspend or misspend on your ad campaigns.

And with the broad targeting on Facebook, setting up an audience exclusion list can help your budget go further.

The final word

Optimizing your Facebook ad campaigns and getting the most from your ad spend is an organic process. Regular reviews of your campaign performance, ad costs, and conversion tracking will likely result in changes to your strategy.

Read more about Facebook ad fraud

Using ClickCease to block fake traffic and optimize your Facebook Ads will improve your cost per acquisition and help you avoid targeting invalid audiences.

Sign up for a free 7 day trial and run a traffic audit on your Meta for Business Ads.

The post 9 Pro Tips For Facebook Ad Optimization  appeared first on ClickCease Blog.

But the reality is that the customer acquisition costs for Facebook can be incredibly expensive. Unless you have some tricks up your sleeve (which might be what you’re here for…), then Facebook ad campaigns can become a business blunder. 

So how can you bring in customers with Facebook but keep those costs down?

In this blog, we’re going to dig into the world of Facebook CAC and share some secret tips on how to upgrade your marketing efforts to reduce customer acquisition costs.

What is CAC?

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the term to describe how much it costs you to acquire a potential customer onto your site and convert them into a buyer.

Let’s use an analogy to make sure we’re all in check.

If you invest $20 in Facebook ads and you get one conversion, it costs you $20 to acquire that customer. But you might have had 100 ad impressions from this same campaign.

Now, let’s say your AOV (average order value) is $10. For a good return on investment, that customer needs to buy again. And again… And again. These repeated buys mean that you’re now in debit (woohoo!) because you’ve got that customer to buy 3x or more, so now you have $10 of pure profit.

How do I calculate CAC?

The simple equation.  

Facebook CAC = Facebook ad spend / Total new customers acquired. 

You can work this out over monthly, quarterly, or annually – whatever works. Try to get it as accurate as possible so you know where and how to improve it.

To go one step further, you might want to look into your overall CAC. This includes money spent on digital marketing tools, ad agencies, different ad campaigns, and other resources. Then you can see the total cost and where you need to focus on to reduce CAC across the board or specific to Facebook ads.

That was the easy part. The hard part is understanding how to reduce Facebook CAC.

Don’t be discouraged if your customer acquisition cost is quite high at the moment. Many businesses, at different stages of their journey, will face the reality of trying to reduce their customer acquisition cost.

Why is CAC important?

According to TK Kader, the profitability of your business is based on two key things:

1. CAC: Customer Acquisition Costs (as discussed above).
2. CLV: Customer Lifetime Value (how valuable a customer is to a business, i.e., the net profit they contribute).

This gauges the most important metrics of your business. These two pillars of marketing demonstrate a – your ability to engage customers’ interest and b – your ability to keep customers coming back for more.

The lower your CAC, the better your CLV. Well, that’s how the theory goes anyway.

What is a good CLV:CAC ratio?

Ad agencies specializing in the customer journey recommend a good CLV:CAC ratio to be 3:1. Again, the focus is profitability. So if you invest $200 into Google or Facebook ads, you want to see at least $600 in new customer sales.

New Customer Acquisition Process

For those who hate analogies, look at the math:

• Company gives $20 = $20 in debit.
• Customer buys once, and the company gets $10 back = $10 in debit.
• Customer buys again = $0 and breaks even.
• Customer buys again = $10 in credit.

Ideally, you want your customers to buy again. This reduces your Facebook CAC so that the investment is worthwhile. You should focus on retention, which is usually done through upselling or cross-selling.

However, if you’re investing over $30,000 a month on Facebook ads without persuading people to come back, that’s a quick way to bust big time. The cost per customer is astronomical and will leave you with little revenue left.

Of course, your goal is to generate loyal customers. So how do we do that? Read on…

7 tips to improve Facebook CAC

When it comes to improving your cost per acquisition on pretty much any paid marketing channel, many of the same rules apply.

Below, we will look in depth at the best ways to improve your Facebook CAC. But if you want the TL;DR, we’ll drop that below the list here too.

OK – so you want to save money on each acquisition while also getting more customers. We hear ya…

1. Identify and refine your audience

With any ad targeting, refining your audience is going to make a huge difference in how effective your campaign is. 

On Facebook, you refine your audience when you set up your ad campaign.

So in this instance, you’re going to need to narrow down the ideal customer profile by:

• Location
• Age range
• Gender
• Specific interests

This means you need to take a deep dig into who your customers really are. If you’ve been relying on a mixture of informed guesswork and good old-fashioned making assumptions, this is a step that could dramatically improve your Facebook CAC.

2. Understand intent vs interest

Bear in mind that with Facebook, you’re not necessarily targeting ‘new’ customers but using remarketing or retargeting. That’s because, on Facebook, the ads are displayed depending on the user’s interests. 

Ads are shown if they have interacted with websites or content in your niche or if they are in a particular area.

Facebook targeting isn’t targeting users by intent but by ‘legitimate interest.’ Let’s clarify.

In Google search, the user has intent. They’re searching for something specific, and they’re looking for an answer – which you can pay to display to them (if you haven’t done your SEO yet).

In Facebook Ads, including Instagram, you’re displaying your ads to an audience who are enjoying free entertainment. And you’re looking to disrupt that entertainment with a tempting offer.

Your target audience in Instagram or Facebook Ads are more than likely looking through their feed when they see an ad for… Well, whatever it is, you’re selling.

It might be glow-in-the-dark sneakers, gourmet dog food, or plain ol’ accounting services. 

Understand that your ad needs to stop their thumb and change how they want to interact with their feed. And it needs to do that in 0.003 seconds too.

3. Use animation and video

Facebook Ads are a visual medium. This applies to Facebook, Instagram, and, to a degree, Facebook Messenger.

Studies show that Facebook video ads get up to 30% more engagement than image-based ads. And on Instagram, the figure rises to 38% more engagement for video ads compared to static images. (source)

The same source also found that half of all customers want to see more video content from their preferred brands.

Basically – video rules. And if you want more engagement, you’ll want to include moving images in some form.

4. Study the art of thumb-stopping

We’ve looked at how to create thumb-stopping ads on Instagram before. If you haven’t read that, definitely check that out.

Knowing how to stop your ideal customer from scrolling comes down to several factors, such as:

• Being consistent in your branding (so they become familiar with your brand, even if they don’t stop on your ads)
• Focusing on the fun – social media is an entertainment platform, after all
• Include faces – posts including comments are nearly 40% more likely to attract comments and engagement

It will totally depend on your branding, message, and many other factors. But when it comes to improving your CAC on Facebook or Instagram, this is going to be a major element.  

5. Be clear in your message and offer

Attention spans are getting shorter – fact.

What this means for marketers is that your message needs to be clear. And if you’re making an offer, this, too, needs to be clearly defined.

What this means is:

• Keep text and copy short 
• Use bold headlines
• Include a call to action and make it commanding – Don’t say ‘Get in touch any time’ instead, say ‘Call now’
• Keep language simple – People don’t want to spend time decoding your message
• Avoid ‘funky’ fonts or annoying animations (unless that’s your thing)

Putting it simply, you want to give your potential customers less chance to be distracted, confused, or bored by your message.

Take this Facebook ad from the reputation management software brand Grade.us. 

The text is minimal, the message is plain and simple, and you know what you’re going to get when you click the CTA.

6. Use landing pages

There are many reasons to use landing pages with your ad campaigns. For starters, it helps to track your traffic and keep tabs on how effective specific campaigns are.

Landing pages also focus the visitors’ attention on the product they have clicked to view, which is incredibly useful if you offer a wide selection of products or services.

As a great way to improve your conversion rate on Facebook, this also reduces your CAC (spend the same, get more conversions).

7. Filter out fake profiles and bad traffic

It’s no secret that Facebook has had problems with bots and ad fraud in recent years. In fact, there have been a number of account clear outs and crackdowns.

Read our run down of Facebook traffic statistics

Unfortunately, fake traffic is still a major issue on Facebook Ads, including Instagram, the Audience Network, and even Messenger Ads.

These fake profiles include:

• Bot accounts based on click farms
• Duplicate accounts
• Hacked and ‘Zombie’ accounts
• Data scraping bots
• Ads displayed within malware apps (Audience Network)

All of these forms of fake profiles or bad ad placements interact with Facebook ads, costing advertisers money and significantly impacting the Facebook CAC of business owners.

Although Meta for Business, or Facebook Ads, is a powerful tool in the marketers’ armory, taking this bad traffic seriously is more important than ever. 

ClickCease offers one of the best fraud protection services for advertisers using Facebook Ads. By proactively blocking bad traffic, you avoid impressions or site visits from bots or fake profiles.

Taking control of your ad targeting and traffic blocking, especially in the wake of Apple’s changes to privacy, is key to improving Facebook CAC.

If you do run Facebook Ads, you can check your traffic with a free trial of ClickCease.

The TL;DR

The Meta for Business Ads suite offers many great opportunities to target customers. And although it is not the cheapest way to run an ad campaign, Facebook Ads offer a great reach and can be very effective.

But the main thing to remember when trying to reduce your Facebook CAC is that you’re targeting those with interest – not intent.

Keep it simple. Keep it engaging.

And make sure that your ad traffic is 100% human by blocking fake traffic with ClickCease.

Check your traffic today for free.

The post All About Facebook CAC (and How To Reduce It) appeared first on ClickCease Blog.

Today, Instagram has over a billion users and took over $26 billion in ad revenue in 2021.  

Read our post about Facebook and Instagram traffic statistics

If you’re looking to reach a broad audience, social media ads remain an important element. But how can you create high-performing ad campaigns for Instagram that will give you an edge over the competition?

The art of thumb-stopping

Capturing people’s attention to stop scrolling on Instagram, or thumb-stopping, is a fine art and one that not every brand can master. To explain it in simple terms, thumb-stopping is the act of stopping someone from scrolling and enticing them to either click on the content to find out more or to engage with a like, comment, or other direct interaction.

Creating thumb-stopping content is basically what Instagram is all about. And these days, we even have competition from sites like TikTok and Snapchat too – and, to a degree, Facebook and Twitter.

It does depend on your product or service, as Instagram is very much a B2C platform. Don’t expect to win too many clients looking for complex financial information…

But those running e-commerce sites, or ‘fun’ and ‘lifestyle’ services, will find Instagram a rich hunting ground.

You’ll find plenty of tips on the internet about making thumb-stopping ads for Instagram. But we’ve gone one step further and shared some of our tips and experience. In this post, Silvia Yaniv, User Acquisition Manager at Cheq and ClickCease, shares some of her suggestions for creating Instagram ads.

1.  Keep it visual

Obviously, right? After all, Instagram is a photo and video-sharing platform, it makes sense that we want to stop those thumbs with some bold imagery.  

Typical approaches to getting people’s attention are using attractive colors, contrast, and maybe big, bold text.

Sylvia Yaniv says, “You have to think of how your image is going to jump out of the user’s feed. Especially as there is less targeting, thanks to the Apple OS update, you want your ads to speak for themselves. And on Instagram, this means strong visuals.”

Imagery that has been shown to work well for engagement on Instagram includes videos, especially short-form and fast-paced videos. In fact, video is one of the best forms of thumb-stopping media – whether that’s in-feed or in Instagram Stories.

But static images can perform well too. Try to go for images that spark one of the following emotions:

• Curiosity – What’s happening here? Clickbait still works…
• Inspiration – Could people improve their lives? Or help save the planet? Or achieve their long-held goals?
• Lust – Not just in terms of sex (although that works too) but can also relate to the ‘I want that’ response
• Greed – Similar to the lust principle but appealing more to getting something for free or at a big discount

Imagery for products can still perform well. So you don’t need to use the stunning landscape of the African savannah to sell your sunglasses brand.

But when it comes to showcasing products, we like to see them either on people or as a well-laid-out product shot. Think of simple compositions and colors that highlight the product.

2. Faces are good

People like to see other people’s faces, especially in ads. In fact, one study found that ads containing human faces, as opposed to animated faces, attracted 58% more clicks.  

Perhaps the obvious reason for this is that we are all social animals, and we trust another human more than we trust an animated image. It’s one of those ‘social proof’ factors. 

And when you consider that people are looking through social media sites like Instagram to be, well… Social… It figures that faces will work well.

Whether you’re using video or static images, consider how a friendly human face can help to stop those thumbs from scrolling.

As a slight caveat to the point about the study above – they also mention that it is worth a/b testing your ads to see for yourself. Like all things marketing, it will depend on your audience, your product, and your goals.

3. Fun, not functional

As Silvia points out, “People don’t come to Instagram to learn, they just want to switch off their brains and enjoy… They’re looking for fun”.

And that remains a key point when creating thumb-stopping ads for Instagram.  

Whatever your product, make it fun. Make it sexy.  

Even if you’re selling accounting services or something like fraud protection  – which isn’t particularly sexy, there are ways to present a more fun and funky angle.  

A crazy fact or stat can be a good way to bridge the gap between fun and functional. 

Or repurposing a meme or trending topic to carry your own message. Think outside the box to make your advertising more fun and more likely to stop people scrolling.

Check out this brilliant Instagram post from the Irish budget airline @Ryanair… Tapping into multiple trending topics, including a popular Netflix series (The Tinder Swindler), cryptocurrencies, and the recent (May 2022) Luna/Terra crypto crash.

Although not a paid post, this is a great example of creating thumb-stopping content on Instagram (which could be used as paid another time).

Ryanair’s feed is also a great example of meme marketing and even using a bit of self-deprecating humor to win over brand haters.

Another great example of fun content is from the popular marketing tool @SEMRush. Their feed actually has some good examples of keeping business content fun for social media, not just functional.

4. Promote your best organic content 

Did one of your recent organic posts go crazy? Why not run it as a paid ad?

You can think of your organic social media posts as a testing ground for your paid campaigns. After all, if it stopped plenty of people scrolling in their organic feed, surely it’ll work as an ad too?

5. Consistent imagery

How consistent is your Instagram feed? Uniformity goes a long way to attracting followers and even getting more engagement.  

People often follow accounts, especially business accounts, precisely because they have an appealing and consistent aesthetic.

Consider this feed from @Riverford, an organic veg box supplier based in the UK.

Although their feed isn’t all the same image, you know that by following them, you’re going to get some useful cooking tips and some great #foodporn too.

They have a regular ‘veg hacks’ post, which crops up every few days, and images of their location and products.

6. Consistent branding

When building brand visibility on social media, don’t forget to display your branding! 

Although this means splashing the logo occasionally, you don’t necessarily need to have the logo in every post. Using your brand typeface, company colors, or tagline also counts towards branding.

How does this help you stop those thumbs from scrolling?

It doesn’t.

But it builds awareness of your branding, even if you’re not thumb-stopping. You may not be gaining likes, clicks, or comments from this campaign, but your branding is still working its way into the users’ orbit.

7. Use Facebook’s lookalike targeting

Despite being severely impacted by Apple’s changes to ad permissions in iOS14.5, Facebook Ads, including Instagram ads, remains an effective ad channel.

And, as Silvia points out, lookalike targeting is one of the best ways to maximize your ad exposure. 

“If you have the Facebook pixel on your website, Facebook’s targeting can do the work for you. They want you to succeed and to keep spending with them, and lookalike targeting is how they help you.”

You can set up lookalike audience targeting when setting up your Instagram ad campaigns.

Within Facebook ads manager, you will need to go to the audiences page:

• Go to ‘Create Audience’ and then select ‘Lookalike Audience’
• Use an Engagement Custom Audience as a source for your lookalike audience
• Customize your audience location and size 
• And that’s it… Click on ‘Create Audience’

8. Block fake users

When it comes to capturing the audience’s attention, there is a demographic that will never convert: fake users. 

In fact, it’s estimated that of the 1 billion users on Instagram, 95 million are not real – roughly 10%. These automated (bot) accounts are often operated by click farms and are hired to inflate engagement on social media. 

Check out our guide to bots and fake accounts on Facebook and Instagram

Bot accounts are generally hired to post comments, like, follow, and generally boost views. And if they are exposed to your ads, they are logged as an impression – costing you money.

ClickCease is one of the only click fraud prevention solutions to block fake accounts on Facebook Ads, including Instagram Ads.

So if you’re hoping to do some thumb-stopping on Instagram, make sure you also do bot blocking. 

If you’re running Instagram Ads or Facebook Ads, run an audit with our FREE 7-day trial.

The post 8 Tips For Creating Thumb-Stopping Instagram Ads appeared first on ClickCease Blog.

Despite some headline dominating challenges for Meta, aka Facebook, there remains a huge pool of potential for marketers.

In this article, we’re going to look, in brief, at the changes that have affected Meta for Business. And then we’ll look at how you can still win at Facebook ads, even with the changes that have happened.

What has changed at Facebook?

It’s been a tough couple of years both for Facebook, aka Meta, and the marketers using their ad suite. In April 2021, the hammer blow of the iOS 14.5 update reduced the capacity for marketers to target Apple users. 

As you probably know, Apple introduced their iOS 14.5 update that required users to opt-in to Facebook tracking. As you might expect, the overwhelming majority have chosen not to do this, leaving Facebook looking rather flaccid on the digital marketing stage.

With an accumulation of negative headlines over the past few years, Mr. Zuckerberg decided a rebrand was in order. And so Facebook became Meta, tying into Mark Zuckerberg’s enthusiasm for the impending opportunities in the metaverse.

In 2022, Meta laid off 11,000 employees as a result of the underwhelming results of their metaverse project.

But, despite these challenges, Meta remains a major force in marketing. 

Why Meta Ads are still relevant (and worth using)

If you’re in marketing the truth is, Meta for Business is an incredibly powerful tool. They still own the biggest social media platforms: Facebook and Instagram.

Yes, TikTok is a challenger, but they don’t come close to the audience size or reach of Meta’s two biggest platforms. (source)

Put simply, Facebook (or Meta) is to social media what Google is to search engines. And although there are challenges to the throne, the chances of a revolution still look distant.

For you, this means that Meta for Business still presents some of the best opportunities for marketing online. If only you know how to play the game.

With that in mind, these are our tips for remaining competitive in the world of Facebook Ads marketing.

How to win at Facebook Ads in 2023

Although the ability to target Facebook and Instagram users has been diminished slightly, there are still a number of ways you can improve your marketing results using Meta for Business. 

Perhaps the most effective method of driving clicks to your ads is to focus on the creative, not just the tracking.

Sarit Shternbach, Growth Manager at Cheq ClickCease says, “The businesses that perform best on social media advertising are those that embrace the strengths of the platforms.”

“People don’t want to be advertised to. But they do like to see interesting facts, funny videos and shareable information.”

1. Less us, more you

This applies to all forms of marketing, but especially on social media such as Facebook and Instagram. 

As Sarit points out, “You want to appeal to people’s needs, or pain points, instead of selling your benefits. Nobody is interested in how your product works, really. But they do want to know how they can increase their sales, get a good deal or improve their personal gains…” 

Put simply, presenting a relatable point will encourage more engagement and clicks.

This might be opening with an alarming statistic, asking a question or even just going with a cute cat picture (if that works with your brand). By highlighting the problem, or capturing attention, you can then dive into more detail throughout the ad.

By the time you get to your CTA at the end, hopefully your customer has found your content engaging enough to stay long enough and to click.

2. Visuals work

Another factor with social media is the visual element. On Google Ads, for example, you can spend hours creating content for your PPC ads. But with Facebook, Instagram and every other social media platform, it’s all about that thumb stopping moment.

Silvia Yaniv, Acquisition Manager at ClickCease, points out, “A thumb stop is when you see a statement or image that makes you stop scrolling. Although you can do this with text, it usually works best with an image – for example a meme, bright colours or strong design.

“If you can stop people from scrolling for a fraction of a second, you stand a better chance of them engaging with your ad.”

In short, to really win at Facebook marketing, you need to make sure your images and your content stop people in their tracks.

3. Embrace video

It is easier than ever to create videos for your brand, whatever your budget. And when it comes to engaging your audience, nothing works better.

In fact, Facebook itself generates 8 billion video views a day. And as the third most visited website in the world, in-feed videos are a very effective promotional tool. 

When we’re talking about thumb stopping, video has the power to make people want to find out more. Especially as on Facebook and Instagram video ads will autoplay in the feed.

Also, if you’re using speech in your video, don’t forget to add captions. You can either auto-generate captions when you upload your video to Facebook. Or, add your own in the edit suite.

85% of videos viewed in Facebook and Instagram are viewed without sound, so those captions are essential.

4. Less is sometimes more

When it comes to our marketing, we often want to say so much and give the customer so many reasons to convert. 

But maximising conversions on social media involves a different approach.

If you’re running a campaign, keep your message clear and simple. Focus on one benefit per ad, rather than trying to keep people’s attention for two minutes to watch a whole video or read a 500 word post.

“People’s attention spans are short, especially on social media. And increasingly people are wary of ads on Facebook or Instagram. So a really short ad with a simple focus can keep the attention and even make them want to find out more,” says Sarit. 

In short: keep video ad runtimes under 30 seconds (or less ideally) and focus on one benefit per text ad. There’s nothing wrong with running multiple ads focusing on different features and benefits. 

In fact…

5. Run multiple ads

Catching attention on social media is an art form. And when it comes to business marketing, you’ll want to run different versions of ads to find out what works.

Although A/B testing is nothing new, increasingly we need to focus on having different versions of your ads across the same campaign. Especially with the reduced targeting capabilities on Meta for Business.

Multiple ads are also a good way to make sure you don’t oversaturate or bore your audience. 

You can use different visuals, text and videos to keep your campaign fresh and to maintain a higher level of attention and engagement.

Running multiple ads also means you can tailor your ads to different geographic locations, audience types and other demographics without needing to drill down into your targeting.

Tracking changes are coming

Although Apple has hobbled Facebook’s targeting potential, the truth is there is more of the same on the way. 

The Facebook Pixel will soon be no more, and many of the familiar methods of analytics and tracking are about to change.

Google is looking at changes to tracking in the coming year, and legal action from the European Union has challenged how data permissions are handled at the moment.

So the truth is, what is happening with Facebook Ads is likely to become the status quo. 

The consumer is increasingly being given more control of their data, which is obviously great for us as individuals. But as a marketer it presents a different challenge, and the need to refocus your mindset.

The challenge of fake profiles

Alongside these changes, fake profiles and automated web traffic remain an issue.

Facebook and Instagram regularly remove fake accounts, often used by click farms and other automated traffic sources such as bots. In 2019, Facebook removed 2.2 billion fake profiles from its platform. 

Despite this huge clearout,  a further 1.7 billion fake profiles were removed at the end of 2021. In short, there are always a huge amount of fake profiles on Facebook and Instagram.

Marketers are increasingly aware of the need to eliminate fake profiles from their targeting to maximize their return on ad spend. Fraud filters and bot protection are no longer nice to have but essential tools in the advertisers’ armory.

Read more about fake traffic on Facebook here

Whatever your Facebook ads marketing strategy in 2023 and beyond, reducing fake traffic is going to be an important element.

Have you tried ClickCease? As the world’s leading click fraud blocking solution, professional marketers rely on us to block bad traffic and fake clicks and improve their campaigns.

Try us out for FREE for 7 days!

The post Using Creative Strategies To Win at Facebook Ads in 2023 appeared first on ClickCease Blog.

Facebook still has the most active users and the biggest global reach of any social platform. But Instagram is not to be ignored, with a strong offering of its own. Even as part of Meta’s suite of social platforms, Instagram stands on its own as a strong ad platform with incredible reach.

We’ve looked at the Facebook family of apps and their traffic stats before – which you can check out here. But traffic stats aren’t everything.  

As any marketer knows, it’s the audience that matters,

So, looking at Facebook vs. Instagram Ads and understanding which is best for your business comes down to a few things.

The audience

Although they are both popular social media platforms run by the same digital behemoth, the audiences between Facebook and Instagram are unique. There is obviously a degree of crossover, but there are also pluses and minuses for each one.

Instagram

The biggest age demographic on Instagram is 18-29-year-olds, with a 71% overall share.

Gender-wise, the global split is 51% female to 48% male, according to data from Backlink.io.

Interestingly, the younger the Instagram user, the more likely they are to log on multiple times each day.

67% of 18-24-year-olds login to Instagram multiple times per day, compared to 49% of 35-44-year-olds (are the older generations just lying so they don’t look so bad in front of their boss?).

In the US, women make up the majority of Instagram users. 43% of American women use Instagram compared to 31% of men.

However, India has the biggest overall number of Instagram users (perhaps unsurprisingly, considering the total population). 349.2 million Indians use Instagram, compared to 193.9 million Americans. 

Facebook

Although the numbers look similar when comparing Facebook vs. Instagram, with the biggest user base being the 25-34-year-olds, there are several key differences.

First of all, session time on Facebook is nearly twice as long as on Instagram – with the average user clocking up over 5 minutes per visit on Facebook, compared to under 3 minutes on Instagram. 

This is most likely due to the nature of content too, with Instagram offering a ‘quick hit’ of content rather than the need to engage with lengthier posts on FB.  

Facebook has also made itself more of a go-to platform for people doing things rather than solely a time-waster like Instagram. 

This means people use Facebook to engage with communities, browse Facebook Marketplace or plan events.  

Facebook has a significantly bigger user base than Instagram, with 2.74 billion monthly users in 2021. And yes, you read that right, Facebook has more monthly users than China, and India have people combined.

But the nature of the platforms might be the deciding factor for many marketers.

Marketing benefits of Facebook vs. Instagram

Although both platforms work best with visual content, they both have their own benefits.  

Both channels have some of the best levels of engagement in the social media industry and the biggest number of active users.

Marketing benefits of Instagram

When it comes to ad engagement, Instagram is currently the Don.  

Engagement on Instagram ads, according to HootSuite, comes out at 4.59%. In this respect, engagement means likes, clicks, and comments, and not necessarily conversions.

Most Instagram ads are unobtrusive, especially those in the main feed, and are, therefore, less likely to be perceived as annoying or intrusive. Even Instagram Stories ads are relatively unobtrusive compared to a pop-up or splash screen from Google Ads.

Instagram also allows advertisers to sell directly from the app, with integrated Shopify stores. This means that if you partner with an influencer or promote a specific product, users don’t need to click away from the app to complete a sale.

This is obviously going to appeal more to e-commerce stores than those offering other services, business support, for example.

However, there is plenty of scope for brands to promote other services and products, especially within their Stories. If you’ve been on Instagram lately (or ever, for that matter), you’ll have seen that every other Instagram story is an ad with the ‘swipe up to find out more’ taking people directly to a landing page.

Plenty of subscription services, events promotions, and voucher deals are running ads on Instagram.

Marketing benefits of Facebook

If Instagram is the quick hit of social media marketing, Facebook offers a comparative long-form version.

With its text and image-based format, Facebook allows advertisers to go more in-depth with their written content – and video too. This means a high potential for engaging users through video or text storytelling.

According to Hootsuite, the average Facebook user clicks on 11 Facebook Ads each month. (source)

Despite this, average engagement comes out at a median rate of 0.27%, which sounds quite poor.  

Compare it to Google Ads paid search at 3.17%, and even Google’s Display Network at 0.47%, and it does pale in comparison.  

But in fact, that second stat tells the tale. Facebook Ads are not targeting people who are searching for something – it’s more that they are trying to capture the attention of a specific audience segment.  

By this metric, you don’t want to convert tons of clicks with low chances of converting – as you might do on Google Ads. But your ad is designed to pique the interest of a particular Facebook user.  

How much do ads on Facebook & Instagram cost?

Like all ad platforms, the costs of running ad campaigns vary greatly. It will depend on factors such as your audience size and which ad format you use.

Facebook and Instagram offer both CPC (cost per click) and CPM (cost per thousand impressions). The average cost of Facebook Ads is: 

• CPC: $0.97
• CPM: $7.19
• App downloads: $5.47
• Pay per like $1.17

The average cost of Instagram Ads is:

• CPC: Between $0.20 – $2.00
• CPM: $6.70

Source: WebFX (FB) (Insta)

How do I set up Facebook & Instagram Ads?

As Meta owns both Instagram and Facebook, you actually run them from the same dashboard: Facebook Ads Manager.

The Meta for Business page (previously Facebook for Business) is the starting point for campaigns on both platforms.

You’ll be given the option to run a campaign on one or the other (or both). Obviously, Meta wants to make it as easy as possible for you to spend money on both platforms, so it’s very straightforward.

You can use the same image, although Facebook and Instagram present images using different cropping.

You can even use the same text or videos.

Targeting audiences on Facebook & Instagram

Ad targeting on both platforms comes down to understanding your audience.  

This is where your brand avatars are super important because you’re not targeting search terms. You’re targeting a specific type of person, within an age bracket, by location, with interests.

If you’ve not put together brand avatars before, then it’s highly recommended that you take the time to understand your audience in some detail.

An issue that many marketers don’t take into consideration is the problem of fake accounts on Facebook and Instagram. Clicks and impressions from these non-genuine accounts cost you money but have zero chance of converting.

In fact, we’ve looked at the issue of fake accounts on Facebook before. By some estimates, approximately 13-16% of Facebook accounts are fake accounts.  

This means that you’re most likely wasting around 15% of your Facebook ad budget on non-converting traffic, such as bots.

Using the industry-leading click fraud protection from ClickCease allows you to block these fake accounts, resulting in cleaner traffic and optimised ad spend.

If you’re running Instagram or Facebook ads, try out ClickCease for free to get a deeper insight into your ad traffic. 

So which is best for your business?

Obvious statement alert: It depends on your business.

But putting it very generally, both Facebook and Instagram have benefits for pretty much every business. 

The best way to determine which is best for you is to run a few campaigns and see what sticks. You might find that Facebook delivers some great leads or that Instagram drives your converting traffic up tenfold.

Social media ads are an important component of pretty much all digital marketing campaigns these days. And as Meta has the biggest of the platforms, you’ll most likely end up choosing between Instagram vs. Facebook ads at some point.

Keep your ads on target, and make sure you’re using ClickCease for any paid marketing campaigns on Facebook/Meta Ads, Google, or Microsoft/Bing Ads. Our industry-leading click fraud filters have helped thousands of marketers get their best return on investment from ads.

Sign up for a free trial!

The post Facebook Ads vs Instagram Ads: Which is Best For Your Business? appeared first on ClickCease Blog.